If you’ve been following our Twitter feed, you’ve probably seen some of the links about New York’s latest solution to their budget woes. Late last week it was released that the state legislators are considering closing or reducing hours of operations and programs at a laundry list of state parks in order to trim the state’s budget.

Governor David Paterson has asked the parks department to cut 16 percent from their operating budget, a reduction of about $29 million. (Currently the parks department has a budget of $184 million). With 178 parks and over 30 historic sites to run, finding a way to keep all of them open on a reduced budget is no small task.

Among the parks and historic sites that are in danger of being closed are

• Wonder Lake State Park (Putnam)
• Two Rivers State Park (Tioga)
• Old Erie Canal State Park (Onondaga)
• Fort Ontario State Historic Site (Oswego)

Before we became West Coast (and more specifically, Pacific Northwest) transplants, we lived in the Northeast and hiked quite a few of the trails in New York’s State Park system (using our favorite trail maps for the area). Even a very popular park, Hudson Highlands State Park, is on the list, with the proposed closure of the Arden Point area. Assemblyman Daniel Burling (R-Warsaw) knows the popularity of the parks and told the press that, “even last year, one of our worst recession years, we drew two million more tourists than the year before.” That’s quite a lot of people visiting New York State Parks.

Additional closures were released yesterday. It looks as though the parks department will be dealing with quite a few cuts and closures when the 2010-2011 fiscal year budget is released.

To follow the developing story and read more about the issue, check out the article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch, and The Daily News Online. For the full list of parks being considered, read the press release on New York State’s Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation department website.